10 Questions with Walter Meego
By: Aaron Z. Lee
1. I recently had the chance to see you guys play at the Bug Jar in Rochester and the thing I was most impressed with was how you guys use all kinds of samplers and gadgets to bring your beats live. How did you guys come up with that method of live drumming?
We used to use computers and a program called ableton live. But then two tours ago we switched to samplers only. We wanted to lose the computer. We felt like our set was a 45 minute promo for apple computer with the apple light shining right in the middle of our setup on stage. And plus we wanted to make the set more interactive so we got samplers instead. It’s been way better. Now we can improvise more. It’s fun.
2. I love the use of piano in your song Keyhole; it adds this whole epic atmosphere before the face melting guitar solo drops. Was it always your intention to have Keyhole be your virtuoso level song or did it just evolve that way?
Keyhole was a little melody I came up with on the bass actually. Then I discovered it sounded kind of like clockwork orange or something on the piano, which I liked ‘cause the music from that movie is awesome. Yeah, so then everything evolved from that opening on the piano. I think we’ve always tended to make things sound big. so keyhole becoming epic sounding was really just a combination of us doing what we do and the song lending itself to that more than the others.
3. You guys have said that you are influenced by jazz and oldies as well as bands like Nirvana and the Beatles, who are some of the jazz musicians and oldies musicians that influence and inspire you?
I grew up listening to oldies on the radio with my mom in the car. And then after the fifties, it was the sixties. So I always thought songs had to be written like an Everly Brothers song or a Beatles song. I mean, simple like less is more. And then I also grew up playing the piano and one of the styles I got way into was ragtime. And ragtime was kind of like classical music converted to a pop format with bouncy syncopated bass/chords and stuff like that. So again it was this pop thing. And then when I started playing guitar, I got into jazz standards like ‘all of me’ or ‘bye bye blackbird.’ And when I say jazz, I don’t really mean people like Miles Davis. I prefer melodic guys like Duke Ellington or just the older songs with verses and choruses. So again it’s this pop thing. And then also, when I started guitar, I thought nirvana was the greatest thing since the Beatles. I still think so.
4. What band or musician are you guys listening to right now?
I’ve actually been listening to a lot of Tchaikovsky. I think he’s awesome. I really like Swan Lake and the piano song called June. He’s probably my favorite classical person. Other than that, it’s been a long run this year. I can’t remember everyone but people like John Mauls got lots of spins at rancho Meego. We don’t pay royalties though. Sorry.
5. The synth sound in Girls sounds very similar to the synths used in the song Run by Air, is that a coincidence or homage?
I hadn’t even thought of that. No intentional homage or anything. But we really like Air. I think Moon Safari and Virgin Suicides were their best. They had a big influence on us.
6. You guys have had songs used both in a Heineken commercial and at the end of Ugly Betty, how did you guys arrive at having songs used on nationwide ads and major network programming?
That was all our label. they’re really good at that stuff.
7. What do you think of the string of indie songwriters like Stephen Merritt of the Magnetic Fields and Kevin Barnes from Of Montreal writing and licensing songs for commercials?
I don’t stand one way or the other on that. I think selling out is lying to yourself and to the people you give your music to. so if you write a song called ‘happy thanksgiving’ and it gets licensed by hallmark and then you put it on your album and you’re trying to tell people that it was just a coincidence then you’re being insincere. But if you say ‘hey, I wrote this song called ‘happy thanksgiving’ for hallmark and I don’t care so whatever’ then you’re not pretending so who cares. I think this concept of selling out comes from an era where people bought records and now they just don’t. Everything’s internet now. The internet is like this hoover vacuum that sucked up everything and then accidentally sucked up itself and now we’re all lost in this nowhere land of anything goes and nothing at all. So I think it’s a case by case thing and I also think it’s just as much about how you do it as it is about what you’re doing.
8. You guys just recently released three demos on your blog with the theme Fun Songs about Things that Aren’t Fun. Is this theme a result of a lot of touring and music industry turmoil or something completely different?
Those songs are just about how I think it is. I like being simple and songs like those give me a chance to do that. I also like negative themes with a positive twist. I guess it has to do with the music industry only because that’s the thing I’m in. But it has to do with everything really. I’ve always felt torn between being knowingly selfish and doing what makes me happy and then on the other hand, just going completely to the other side and saying fuck it, I don’t care, you can have it, because competing for it turns it into something different than what I wanted in the first place and so I don’t want it anymore.
9. You guys are headed off to Australia for a show at the end of December and a few in the beginning of January, what are you most excited about seeing or doing in Australia?
I just saw the movie Australia last night. I have to say it was too long and I never really connected with the story or the characters. That aside, I’m really excited to go. I’ve never been so I’m an open book ready for Australia to do the writing.
10. Will you be taking any pictures with Kangaroos?
I guess I hadn’t planned on it. But I’m open to it.
Thanks for doing this interview and best of luck in your Australian Tour!
Here are their Australian Tour Dates
Dec 31 @ The Capital Nightclub in Perth
Jan 1 (3:45P) @ The Domain in Sydney
Jan 1 (8:00P) @ The Riverstage (City Botanic Gardens) in Brisbane
Jan 3 @ The Mornington Racecourse in Mornington (Rural Victoria)
Walter Meego – Forever
Walter Meego – Dollar Signs Demo
Richard Jankovich is a producer from Los Angeles who goes by the name Pocket. He is also the front man of electronic pop outfit the Burnside Project who have put out two excellent albums; 2003′s The Network, The Streams, The Harmonies and 2005′s The Finest Example is You. Under the Pocket name, Jankovich has has remixed Beck, Radiohead, Kristin Hersh, Of Montreal, Elk City, Joanna Newsom, Mendoza Line, Dirty on Purpose, Eskobar, Cat Power and others, always with groovy results.
